Great Act, Horrible Conditions…

A few weeks ago I went out to the LA County Fair to see Patrick McGuire perform. Patrick is an amazing juggler and performer. I’ve only worked with him indoors in theaters, so I was curious what his outdoor show looked like. Here’s a video he posted on Facebook: I saw him on a weekday … Continue reading “Great Act, Horrible Conditions…”

A few weeks ago I went out to the LA County Fair to see Patrick McGuire perform. Patrick is an amazing juggler and performer. I’ve only worked with him indoors in theaters, so I was curious what his outdoor show looked like.

Here’s a video he posted on Facebook:

I saw him on a weekday during the day and he had rough conditions. It was over a hundred degrees out, there was no shade for the performers or the audience. The only shade was probably 150 feet away, which is where I watched the show from. To top it all off, there was a stage directly next to and slightly behind the one Patrick was performing on that was having a Mexican Battle of the Bands, which was insanely loud!


To his credit, he did his show, didn’t look annoyed and people watched. He didn’t get much of a response out of people, but they were into it and stayed for the whole show.


The moral of the story is that no matter how bad the conditions, the audience came to see you. If there’s nothing you can do about it in the moment, you need to press on and give them the best show you can!